Team Chevy swept the top five positions in Friday's qualifying
session at Daytona International Speedway. Additionally, Chevrolet
drivers grabbed six of the top ten positions for tomorrow night's
race.

Paul Menard, driver of the No. 15 Menards/Vertis Chevrolet Impala SS won
his first career pole in 57 career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts. His
best previous career start was 13th earlier this season at Dover.
Menard turned a lap of 185.916 mph and an average time of 48.409 seconds.

ON HIS QUALIFYING LAP:
"I really had no idea. I knew the ECR engine boys gave us some
more power for this race. We really didn't do a qualifying run
yesterday in practice; we just worked on drafting. We might have
overdone it a little bit with the tape because the motor got a little bit
warm but nothing too bad or nothing that is going to affect us for
tomorrow so looking forward to the race for sure. We drafted yesterday
and we really had good speed in the car, had to work on the drivability a
little bit but we're right there."

IS THE MOST IMPORT THING WHEN YOU CLIMB BEHIND THE WHEEL TOMORROW NIGHT
FOR THE COKE ZERO 400 IS HOW COMFORTABLE ARE YOU IN THE RACE CAR? IT
LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE A BETTER STARTING SPOT THAN YOU HAVE
EVER HAD HERE IN DAYTONA.
"Well, we'll see how it all shakes out. The wind could pick
up, it could cloud up, anything could happen but nonetheless we'll
have a good starting spot and its four-hundred miles tomorrow night we
have to survive."

***

MARK MARTIN, NO. 8 U.S. ARMY IMPALA SS -- Qualified 2nd

ON HIS LAP:
"Well I know it was good for racing, but I didn't know it was
going to qualify this well. We qualified pretty decent in February but
nothing like that. So you know, its just a tribute to the
Earnhardt-Childress engine program and all the guys at DEI because they
build really incredible restrictor plate cars over the years and I had a
feeling that the eight car has got the look of years of the past when we
watched Dale Jr. go out there and do what he wanted to do. It sure would
be fun to do that tomorrow night."

THE OTHER THING ABOUT QUALIFYING UP FRONT IS THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO GET
A GOOD PIT SELECTION AND EVERYBODY TELLS ME THAT'S FAIRLY IMPORTANT
HERE IN DAYTONA. IS IT?
"Yeah, I mean yeah. I don't know; I'm not sure if
Tony and I will know what to do with that good of a pit selection.
I'm not used to that."

ON HIS LAP
"I don't know, I am not sure what a good lap is. We run the
same thing we ran in February. The cars are really good, and I am real
happy with the power and the handling was pretty good yesterday. I am
excited and looking forward to the race."

THIS IS A UNIQUE PAINT SCHEME ON YOUR CAR, DO YOU LIKE IT?
"It's real similar to the one that Casey (Mears) won with
last year. But this one is hand done. Everything on it. No decals, as
far as the paint itself there's no decals.

"It took a while to stencil all that out I imagine. The guys took
about two days on it and they are real proud of it and its real slick and
its real important the preparation they put into these cars."